Questionable Late Call Gives Lake Erie Game Two of Calder Cup Finals
HERSHEY, PA – Madison Bowey puts his stick on his head after the Hershey Bears fell in Game Two of the Calder Cup Finals Friday night. (Kyle Mace / Chocolate Hockey)
Outplaying a team doesn’t always mean you will win. That’s what happened Friday night in Chocolate Town. The Hershey Bears very much outplayed the Lake Erie Monsters on in Game Two of the 2016 Calder Cup Finals, but it just wasn’t their night.
The Bears troubles started after Chris Bourque shoved down Daniel Zarr after Zarr kept poking away on Justin Peters after Peters covered the puck. The shove from Bourque was enough for the officials to call a roughing penalty on Bourque, sending the Bears a man down early. Lake Erie would execute on the power play to take a 1-0 lead under five minutes into the first.
The Monsters would extend their lead to 2-0 on a two on one breakaway, beating Peters again in the second period.
Finally, Hershey would get on the board after Zach Sill would score on his own rebound to cut the Monster’s lead to 2-1, but a pass out in front of Peters to Lukas Sedlak gave the Monsters their two-goal lead back.
A questionable call came very early in the third period after Ryan Stanton would hit Oliver Bjorkstrand, who would go down. Referee Garrett Rank called it a hit to the head, but the call came close to five seconds after the hit, and Stanton clearly hit Bjorkstrand much lower than the head. That penalty would give the Monsters another power play, which Bjorkstrand would score on to make 4-1.
Troy Mann was not happy after the game about the call which would lead to Lake Erie’s third period, and eventual game-winning goal, saying it was “an absolutely terrible call on Stanton.”
“It was a late reaction – I don’t even think Rank saw the hit. It wasn’t to the head. The kid dives. Next thing you know he’s scoring the game winner. To me, that’s not only a game changer, that’s a series changer. It’s unfortunate, but that’s a bad break for us as a team that that kind of call is being made in the playoffs.”
Hershey would begin to mount a comeback midway through the third as Tyler Lewington and Liam O’Brien would both find the back of the net with time left in the final period of regulation. But it wouldn’t be enough as Zarr would score an empty netter to give the Monsters a 2-0 series lead.
“I thought we played a pretty good game,” Mann said. “When you look at the grade-A chances, I don’t have numbers in front of me, but I guarantee we had 25 tonight for sure – maybe 30. We were very positive with the players in terms of how we played tonight. I thought we deserved better. But at the end of the day, we’re down 2-0.”
This is not the first time a team has gone down 0-2 at home in the Calder Cup Finals and has come back to win. In fact, the last team to crawl back from a two-game hole on the road was the 2010 Hershey Bears, a team Troy Mann coached on. “We lost the first two games a home, went into Texas, and actually were down 2-0 after the first period. Last time I checked I got a Calder Cup ring at home.”
“You just gotta stick with it,” Zach Sill said after the game. “You gotta come back with an even better game on Monday night. It takes four wins to win a series.”
“It’s not over by any means,” said Aaron Ness. “We’re excited for the challenge, we’re excited for the next game, and we’re ready to go.”
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Please. That call gave the Monsters the game? Lake Erie’s ability to cash in on good chances had nothing to do with it. Neither did Forsberg’s stone wall in net. There was no replay from the fine Hershey video folks, or the league, and the only live picture didn’t prove anything one way or the other. Hershey can certainly come back but claiming a “bad call” gave game 2 to Cleveland is bush league.
If that penalty is never called, there’s a pretty good chance they never score in the third. That means if Hershey gets those two goals from Lewington and O’Brien, we’re going to overtime. That was a horrible call, and footage proves it. If you have not seen the replay, I will gladly get you one and show you how terrible of a call it actually was. Game Two was given to Lake Erie on a bad call. That’s a fact.
I know this is months after your comment. I don’t pay attention to these things like I should, but I would remind you that we are Cleveland fans and have more than our share of experience at being screwed by refs, replay, our own mistakes and inept management in all sports. So, while I hate to see officials influence the outcome of a came by a bad call, I can’t feel too bad for the Bears and their fans. On another level, “a pretty good chance” is hardly definitive and one change in a play makes everything following a toss up. Although, as Redskins QB Sammy Baugh said after the 73-0 1940 NFL Championship defeat by the Chicago Bears when asked what the score would have been had a dropped TD pass from him been caught, “73-7.” Here’s to a great AHL season and a rematch in the Calder Cup finals! (Also, Let’s Go Caps!!)